Black Snake or Cottonmouth?

[Tyler Durden]

we have plenty of cottonmouths around here... lol...

the zoo in Asheboro used to have tons of water snakes just out there in the creek area walkways roaming freely... I remember seeing at least 3 or 4 in one area once...

[g5jamz]

we have plenty of cottonmouths around here... lol...

the zoo in Asheboro used to have tons of water snakes just out there in the creek area walkways roaming freely... I remember seeing at least 3 or 4 in one area once...

I've never seen one in the wild. Grew up in Sanford...swimming in the Cape Fear. Saw lots of watersnakes...just not cottonmouths.

Those things get fat and their heads are huge. I'm just saying what the wildlife officer at Jordan Lake says.

[bleys]

Bleys...probably just a rat snake or a big grey water snake.

Even wildlife officers at Jordan Lake will tell you we have water snakes...not cottonmouths. If you do...they are rare. Cottonmouths around here aren't typically black...they are dark with a pattern. Relatively short with large heads. I've been on the Chowan River enough to have seen my share of cottonmouths.

I used to kill every damned snake I'd come across in my yard, but I've gotten a bit more tolerant to black, king, and corn snakes. I've killed copperheads though. Lot of them in Garner area. Killed big aggressive water snakes too that like to get in our pool. You'd swear they were moccasins due to their meanness...but they aren't poisonous. Will still bite the crap out of you...but not send you to the hospital.

yeah, I try not to kill things that are harmless.. I'd rather leave a poisonous snake alone as well, unless there is a chance for them to harm someone or something.. had to take a pup to get some antibiotics due to a copperhead bite.. found out it was the 4th time. they were up near Falls Lake, with their back yard right next to a swamp.. felt bad for the little dog. their immune system has to fight off the venom along with antibiotics, they won't waste anti-venom on an animal.

Speaking of Garner, the picture that sticks out in my mind is a mammoth of a cottonmouth picture that was put up at Lake Benson boating dock warning people to watch out.. apparently, that one year they were real bad around there.

it looked just like these I saw today, except thinking back there were a few differences.

also, now I remember this guy telling me something similar, that wildlife officers will tell you there are no cottonmouths around.. and that's when he showed me that picture..

I've never seen one in the wild. Grew up in Sanford...swimming in the Cape Fear. Saw lots of watersnakes...just not cottonmouths.

Those things get fat and their heads are huge. I'm just saying what the wildlife officer at Jordan Lake says.

sounds about what I saw in that picture.. they corralled it and took the pic.. this thing had to be 2.5-3 inches thick..

[Snake]

There are only 2 snakes in our part of NC you need to worry about... Cottonmouth and Copperhead... Both have arrow shaped heads and one is dark brown/black and patterned, and the other is copper colored...

There are 3 different rattlers in NC, but none in our neck of the woods... and the coast will have the occasional coral snake...

All in all they are mostly harmless... More likely to make you hurt yourself than actually hurt you...

I dont know where you live but I live on the border of South/North Carolina and one of the most common snakes is a Timber rattler. They can do some major damage to people that mess with them.

[4Corners]

Ill take having cotton mouth over the big black snake anyday

[Tyler Durden]

I dont know where you live but I live on the border of South/North Carolina and one of the most common snakes is a Timber rattler. They can do some major damage to people that mess with them.

yeah I was talking to bleys... he and I are in central NC... just north of the Timber rattler border...

You also probably have pygmy rattlers down there, and Eastern Diamondbacks...

[Tyler Durden]

I've never seen one in the wild. Grew up in Sanford...swimming in the Cape Fear. Saw lots of watersnakes...just not cottonmouths.

Those things get fat and their heads are huge. I'm just saying what the wildlife officer at Jordan Lake says.

We have plenty... maybe he just meant what most people call moccasins or cottonmouths are normally harmless water snakes... a lot of people around here call anything they see near water a moccasin...

cottonmouths have a reputation for being mean and nasty, but the hognose is way more feisty even though it is nonpoisonous...

[Tyler Durden]

oh and the same people that call water snakes moccasins will probably also call the hognose a cobra... it hisses loud as hell, too...

[Panthers_Lover]

North Carolina:

http://www.bio.davidson.edu/projects/herpcons/herps_of_nc/snakes/Agkpis/Agk_pis.html

[bleys]

btw, whats up with basketball tomorrow?!!!!!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!??!

[Panthers_Lover]

South Carolina:

http://www.snakesandfrogs.com/scra/snakes/range_maps/cottonmouth_snake_distribution1.png

[Tyler Durden]

http://www.bio.davidson.edu/projects/herpcons/herps_of_nc/snakes/Agkpis/Agk_pis.html

interesting fact: copperheads also have a green/yellow tail tipping when they are juvenile... found one like that in my yard a couple years back and scared him back to the woods...

also, juvenile black rat snakes are also patterned like cottonmouths/copperheads/water snakes...

[Tyler Durden]

btw, whats up with basketball tomorrow?!!!!!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!??!

Got a late meeting, and have to get ish ready to fly out of town this weekend...

FML it seems as though I will never get to play again... :(

I think my other 2 dudes are out as well again this week... sorry bro!

[bleys]

Got a late meeting, and have to get ish ready to fly out of town this weekend...

FML it seems as though I will never get to play again... :(

I think my other 2 dudes are out as well again this week... sorry bro!

all good.. we'll get something going at some point. I forgot what day it was until just now.